Turnbull channels his inner Trump to finesse Labor’s losing bid

It’s hard to imagine Malcolm Turnbull channelling Donald Trump but there it is.

By re-engineering a damaging debate over penalty rates to one of Labor’s reckless use of 457 visas, he has built his own symbolic Mexican wall to lock out needless foreign workers.

The politics are self-­evident; the Prime Minister will decide how people come to Australia and what they will do when they get here and Bill Shorten will be wedged as the ­architect of a scheme that became perverted under his watch as workplace relations minister.

The Opposition Leader’s twitter response to the announcement yesterday, that Turnbull was more interested in his own job than those of Australian workers, revealed that Labor didn’t see this coming and will struggle to mount an argument to counter it.

Shorten will find it even more difficult to defend his role in a scheme that stretched the boundaries of reason when Labor opened up skilled migrant visas to apiarists, auctioneers, dog trainers, driving instructors, who presumably spent a lifetime driving in the opposite direction, and union officials tasked with arguing for Australian workers’ rights.

Cabinet’s decision to abolish this distended scheme and associated systemic abuse of the visas system attached to it is as dramatic a move as it is bold.

It is also warranted.

There are two simple objectives Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton (whose influence over government policy is manifest) are seeking to serve.

The political narrative is to argue for Australian jobs filled by Australians. The second is to ­address concerns these visas were used as a pathway to residency.

Turnbull is going back to the design of what it was supposed to be. He is saying to businesses that we want you to fill jobs with Australian workers when possible without closing the door to skilled foreign workers where there are genuine shortages. The government is effectively putting an end to the ludicrous.

It could have tinkered further with the current system but it went the nuclear option, ripped it up and started again. It rightly believed band-aid measures would no longer work.

The great unknown is whether this new system will increase red tape, add to regulatory burdens and saddle businesses in genuine need of foreign workers with onerous costs. This would defeat the purpose of the changes.

The left will no doubt accuse Turnbull of dropping a knee to Pauline Hanson and Cory Bernardi, but the recommendations from the Azaria report, on which Turnbull’s decision was based, have been in obvious sight since they were first handed down in 2014.

Turnbull first raised this issue with Dutton last year following reports in The Australian that McDonald’s was bringing in ham­burger flippers on 457 visas. He, like the rest of Australia, was dumbfounded, which was why it was brought to cabinet at the beginning of this year.

Labor will eventually find something to dislike about this. Turnbull will be hoping it does.